Four years after Detroit voters overwhelmingly approved recreational marijuana sales, the city on Thursday awarded its first batch of licenses.
Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison joined City Council Pro Tem James Tate; Anthony Zander, director of Detroit’s Department of Civil Rights, Inclusion & Opportunity; and the city’s top attorney Conrad Mallet Jr. to announce the first 33 recipients of recreational adult-use marijuana retail licenses.
The announcement followed a Wednesday federal court ruling by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, who denied multiple lawsuits and temporary restraining orders against the city’s marijuana ordinance. Friedman previously ruled that the city’s first attempt at how to award recreational marijuana licenses to “legacy Detroiters” in 2020 was “likely unconstitutional.” Since then, the city has re-written the ordinance to be inclusive while still prioritizing equity applicants to give longtime Detroiters a leg up in the lucrative marijuana industry.
There is a 10% excess tax on top of 6% sales tax across the state for marijuana. Officials say there will be no additional tax beyond that.
Kim James, director of the city’s Marijuana Ventures & Entrepreneurship, expects the revenue sharing from marijuana to be in the millions for the city. Recreational cannabis in Michigan is forecasted to hit a new high of $1.5 billion this year and estimated to yield $3 billion in annual revenue in Michigan by 2024.
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